The NHS’s main regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has promised MPs that it is getting its act together after a “tough year” and several bad mistakes.

During an angry session of the parliamentary health select committee on 11 September at its annual accountability hearing on the commission, MPs tackled the leaders of the commission over its failings as a regulator.

Parts of the discussion focused particularly on the case of Winterbourne View private hospital near Bristol, where physical abuse of residents by staff there went unnoticed until the BBC’s Panorama programme broadcast undercover filming.1

Stephen Dorrell, committee chair and Conservative MP for Charnwood, said: “The organisation has been subject to …